A client device may load a computer-implemented online game by downloading one or more application files from a game server. For example, a Web browser on the client device may download multiple Adobe® Flash® object files that implement the client side of the online game. However, analyzing the load performance for online games reveals that the time taken to download a main application file is responsible for a large percentage of the total time it takes to load the game at the client device.
Consider that the total amount of data that needs to be downloaded for the application to become interactive is, merely for example, approximately 6.6 megabytes (MB). Of this data, the main application file may account for approximately 4 MB of the total data downloaded. This causes a problem when multiple files are downloaded for the online game using a single network connection (e.g., a TCP connection), particularly because a typical Web browser may not initiate download for other application components until the web browser completes the download for the main application file.